Blue Jays’ John Schneider opens up on World Series heartbreak: ‘It still stings’

ORLANDO, Fla — There will be a day when the pain from Game 7 of the World Series will subside, Blue Jays manager John Schneider just doesn’t know when it will arrive.

All he knows is that it hasn’t happened yet. Almost six weeks removed from that fateful night at the Rogers Centre, it’s still too soon.

Everywhere Schneider goes here at baseball’s Winter Meetings he’s congratulated on the Jays stellar season, but in the process also reminded of the excruciating near-miss to the defending World Series champion Dodgers in an epic series that rejuvenated the Toronto franchise.

“It took a while,” Schneider said on Tuesday in his first full media availability since the painful hours after that extra-innings loss to the Dodgers that will be remembered for as long as there’s Blue Jays baseball. “I think I’m finally at the point where you can kind of peel back and reflect on the good and not just the, wow, what just happened in Game 7.”

Not that it was easy given the opportunities that eluded the Jays in both Games 6 and 7, and the dramatic way it was decided.

“It took a little bit of avoiding watching highlights or anything like that for a while,” Schneider said.  “But I think that realizing how we moved the needle forward and what certain places did … there was a lot of great stuff going on. So trying to just focus on that now and on how we’re getting better in 2026.”

Why manager can’t bring himself to watch Game 7

Schneider says he hasn’t watched Game 7 in its entirety, but he has seen enough highlights to embed the pain deep inside him.

“I don’t think I ever will, to be honest with you,” Schneider said when we asked him if he has processed and digested the World Series. “I think I’ll think about it until the day I leave this earth … unless you get another opportunity to squash that one.

“There are so many plays that get highlighted. Every time I go down a rabbit hole, I find myself in a new rabbit hole. I’m doing it right now. In the regular season, the games over and the next day you’re checking tape and running it back. I haven’t done that yet. I don’t know when I will.

“It will probably involve a beer or two when the kids are asleep so I can throw some stuff against the wall.”

That said, like everyone with a vested interest in the Jays this season and especially that night, Schneider has relived the most talked-about play in the game — when Isiah Kiner-Falefa was forced out at home in the bottom of the ninth in what would have been the triumphant, championship-winning run.

Lamenting the runs that got away

The gory details still sting for Schneider and the rest of the Jays.

With Kiner-Falefa sticking to a tight leadoff from third to avoid getting picked off or doubled up, the resulting close play at the plate halted the winning run and sent the game to the doomed extra innings.

“We’ve all seen it a million times from our view — in my head — with the way (Daulton) Varsho hit it, I thought one of three things would happen. It was going to be fielded by (second baseman Miguel Rojas) falling backward, game over. Or fielder falls, throws a warm burner to the mound, game over. Or field, throw wide of (catcher) Will Smith, game over.

“So when none of those things happened, I can’t tell you what was going through my head or out of my mouth at that time.”

With the benefit of hindsight, Schneider admitted the obvious — that Kiner-Falefa could have and probably should have — had a bigger lead. The coaching staff was well aware that as a left-handed hitter, it was highly unlikely that Varsho was going to scream a liner to third, which in hindsight afforded him some more real estate away from the bag.

“We could have told him to get off a little bit more,” Schneider said. “It stings. It hurts. I’ve seen that video 3,000 times and 1,500 of them it looks like (Smith’s) off the plate. In the other half, it looks like he’s on. That’s how close it was. That’s why details matter.”

Since he lived it, Schneider is well aware of how sprawling the epic series was, a finale that has already zoomed up the list of one of the best Fall Classic’s ever played.

And the one that should get more attention

For Schneider, there are even plays that most don’t even talk about — could-have-beens that he can’t erase from his cranial hard drive.

Rewind to the bottom of the eighth, when Andres Gimenez ripped a 96.9 mph shot down the line that was snagged by Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy.

“The craziest thing that people don’t talk about,” Schneider said. “Ernie (Clement) at second and Gimenez is squaring a bunt, he pulls back, slashes, and somehow Max Muncy caught the ball. I think that doesn’t get talked about enough.

“There’s so much that happened in that World Series. So many firsts — pinch-hit grand slam, back-to-back home runs, 18-inning game … There’s so many things that happened. I try not to pin it down on one thing.”

And in the process, try to move forward, carrying the momentum of that magical post-season into the next campaign.

“I think getting to the World Series and being close to winning it obviously helps,” Schneider said. “I think it resonates with players. You can definitely feel a difference this off-season (compared) to last year and the year before.

“That’s been a shift. I feel like in hears past with some high-profile players it’s kind of been us selling us to them whereas now, I think the players know what they’re getting into as soon as they start talking to us.”